This is from a memo sent to employees today....
"Delta filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation today to fly between Tokyo International Airport, also known as Haneda Airport, and Seattle, Detroit, Los Angeles and Honolulu. Service at Tokyo-Haneda, which is centrally located and popular among business travelers, would complement Delta’s Asia hub at Tokyo-Narita, Delta said in a release today. The new service also would increase competition between the U.S. and Tokyo by providing an alternative to the service offered by the Star and oneworld alliances. Both alliances already have a strong presence at Tokyo-Haneda, accounting for 84% of scheduled departures and 90% of scheduled seats. “No U.S. airline has invested more in Tokyo,” said Glen Hauenstein, e.v.p.-Network and Revenue Management. “More customers and communities stand to gain from new Delta service at Haneda than can be served by competing applications.”
This seems to be Delta's first response to Japan Air Lines (JAL) recent decision to stay in oneworld and not make the move to SkyTeam. Pointing to the concentration of international flights by the other two major airline alliances (oneworld and Star) Delta is playing the "more competition" card it downplayed just last week when touting the benefits of JAL moving to SkyTeam.
Furthermore, the move if approved, will put more pressure on JAL which recently filed bankruptcy to quickly reorganize and make decisions concerning its future.
I suspected that Delta would retaliate quickly over JAL's decision and that there would be a step up in competitive pressures and this one will be fun to watch play out.
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